Just spent 9 days in Thailand and five of those were in Bangkok. I thought I'd share some of my thoughts and opinions for those considering attending the biennial.
It's a vibrant, electric city with the most incredible sights I have ever seen. The people are so nice and the food..........was out of this world. It's also bordering on chaos and the
air quality was pretty poor. Transportation and food are cheap, but be prepared to be stuck in traffic most of the time and we found that to be the most exhausting part of the visit.
If your planning to spend a few days there I'd recommend hiring a taxi at your hotel for the whole day as you travel to and from the sights and back to your accommodation. We found that
to be the best way to get around. The taxi driver will wait for you no matter how long you want to stay at a certain place. The cost is about $30 a day. You won't regret it. Tuk tuks are fun, but
talk about getting gassed, cough, cough. What an experience.
The street food was great and we had no problems other than it being chili hot as hell sometimes. Some of the soups and curries were beyond delicious and you couldn't tell if I was crying because
of the chili or because it was so delicious. Would I visit again? Yes! Would I spend 5 days there? Probably not.

OK, enough text.

Here are some shots of the Grand Palace. No words to describe this place except that I'm glad I'm not a tile cutter.

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Thanks Tim, I had forgotten how spectacular some of the buildings and statues are. Yes the air is too dirty and the temperatures way way too high for me to contemplate going there again. You are braver than me. After getting sick in so many places I wasnt tempted to touch even the most delicious looking samples.
Peachy

Mahalo Tim for sharing some of your experiences and first impressions of Bangkok - the Biennial in September will give us opportunities to see / smell / taste (if we choose to) some of that street food...

It's official now, Andy and I will be going back. Just started tonight to look at flights. We plan on arriving somewhere a week before the biennial, maybe 10 days earlier. Starting to get excited, we want to make sure we hit the market for the entire day when it's primarily plant vendors only. If I recall, it was on wednesdays. Were looking to buy a few cool things to bring back once again.

Thanks for sharing pics of your recent Thailand trip, whetting our apetite for some of that delicious Thai food! Even though we have a lot of Thai restaurants in the Kona area, there's nothing like the variety and flavors you get in Thailand itself. I'm drooling just thinking about it. I remember as I was there for the last Biennial.

The street food was good, I mean really good and never once was there a 'gastro' problem. I think the key was the freshness. When you see a mortar and pestle grinding away when you order a curry dish
you know it's about as fresh as you can get. If you like crab you're gonna be in heaven. The portion of shelled crab meat was so generous per dish you realize how skimpy the norm usually is.